Join us for today's podcast in which we meet David Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic. Learn how he found himself in that furry, green suit performing crazy antics that drove the crowds wild. David has taken lessons learned from that amazing stint and developed a successful sport marketing business. But even more than that, he has made it his mission to teach others to find their own happiness and live a life of FUN! Learn more about The Luckiest People in the World at www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com
Find David Raymond at daveraymondspeaks.com or by email to dave@daveraymondspeaks.com
TRANSCRIPT
This is Changing the Rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.
KC Dempster 0:13
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Changing the Rules. This is KC Dempster. And I'm here with Ray Loewe in the
Ray Loewe 0:21
wonderful.
KC Dempster 0:22
You jumped on my line.
Ray Loewe 0:24
I did.
KC Dempster 0:25
Okay, well now you can stop for a minute. We are in the ever evolving, Wildfire Podcast Studios in beautiful downtown Woodbury, New Jersey, and it's a little chilly, but we are in meteorological spring. So that is something to lift everybody spirits.
Ray Loewe 0:44
Yes. Because everything gets better over the next three months. I heard that on the news yesterday, too. So that's cool.
KC Dempster 0:49
Yes. Yes. So welcome, Ray,
Ray Loewe 0:52
so So we have a great podcast today. I mean, it This, this, maybe is the is the highlight of our whole podcasting career. So, you know, we've talked a lot about the luckiest people in the world. And we've set this definition that the luckiest people in the world are those people who design their own lives personally. And then once that life is designed, they live it under their terms. Well, we have a gentleman today who has certainly done that. I think at the beginning, he got some extra lock because he got nudged in a way that most of us don't get nudged. But he also exudes one of the mindsets here of the luckiest people in the world. And that mindset is that we all have the power to be happy. And Dave Raymond of all people, I think, has the power to be happy and can show us how to be happy. So Dave Raymond Happy Tuesday, are you that
Dave Raymond 1:55
I just have to tell you how much I love the podcast format. And even more so when you have co hosts? Because I've got more people to point out to say, Well, that wasn't me. That was somebody else.
Ray Loewe 2:07
Well, you know, it keeps us on track. I you know, KC really runs this whole podcast over here. But let's spend some time going back into history because you've had an incredible journey in your life. And and take it back to I guess, college. And you were a football player. And you were related to some guy who is probably one of the most infamous and best football coaches ever.
Dave Raymond 2:37
Well, it was, I had an idyllic life, that's for sure. And I I certainly fit with the topic because I've always looked at my life as being exceptionally lucky. But I grew up with, you know, my hero was my father and he was an icon and his name is was Tubby Raymond. He was a not only a head football coach at University of Delaware, but he he was there for 50 years first as the head baseball coach and then an assistant football coach. And it's a type of career that will never be rivaled again. He was very good friends with Joe Paterno and Joe Paterno used to say I'm not retiring until Tubby Raymond retires.
And they both had that, you know, that situation where they were at one university for the majority of their career, and I'm very proud of my dad, you know, he's not with us. He passed away three years ago, this December. But I live this dream I want all I want to do Ray and KC was to play football for him. I wasn't thinking about education, I just, and then I thought, well, of course I'll be a football coach then. And, and and, and he was happy with that concept. But he knew better than I did in this regard. And he said, Listen, you know, let's take a look at some other options too. I'll help you but and you've got a couple of years before you graduate. You're playing football here. You're having a good time. Why don't I help you get a summer job with the Phillies because he knew Ruly and Bob Carpenter senior who owned the Phillies and I also like to say like Malcolm Gladwell, I had this access and, and then I was soon to have 10,000 plus hours of practice. I just wasn't expecting it to be the practice that it turned out because when my dad told me the most important thing about getting the job with the Phillies for summers was you'll never know who you meet or what might happen. And and that was prophetic. And after a couple of summers working for the Phillies, I went Why do I want to be a football coach?
I can't I can't I couldn't believe that I could have a full time job working for a professional baseball team because back then, you know in this in the 70s there was no such thing as a sports marketing degree. Right. And, and that's that's how it all started.
Ray Loewe 4:51
Okay, so here you are. You're working for the Phillies. And then I think the Phillies asked you to do something that you probably thought was a little weird at The time
Dave Raymond 5:02
that's that's an understatement of the decade. I, I said, Well, when I after the second year, it was supposed to be a two year internship and I had another year to go in school. So I was concerned that I was going to go have to graduate. And then they would get back to me and say, Well, maybe we'll have something for you, David. Instead, that third summer, early in the spring, they called me. I was on campus at the University of Delaware living in my fraternity house and they said, you know, do you want to have your job back? I'm like, Oh, my gosh, sure. What do you want me to do? Go to New York and get fitted for the costume.
Whoa, and I started, I didn't protest, but I started to, you know, I show some, you know, I was a little incredulous about this concept. And they said, No, no, David, look, just go to New York and get fitted for the costume. You know, I did that. And I walked the big surprise was walking into a place that in the garment district that look like Gipetto's puppet studio. And I mean, it was exactly like that. It was a place that you never would expect except in a Disney movie. And I met this woman who turned out to be one of Jim Henson's original designers. She did Statler and Waldorf, she helped design Miss Piggy. And she told me here this is what we're, this is what we're building for the Phillies. And I looked at the picture and I was like, Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna be a muppet.
Ray Loewe 6:25
Well, yeah, this, this shows you are lucky again, because you could have been Miss Piggy.
Dave Raymond 6:33
I don't know. Maybe I could have done that. Well, right. You never know. my, you know, I've got a lot of I have a lot of range.
KC Dempster 6:39
Yeah, yeah, you know, and I'm visualizing the, the Phanatic outfit and Oscar the Grouch. And I think they're related.
Dave Raymond 6:49
Well, they, you know, I would just say there is some lineage to the the beauty and the personalities of the Muppets in general. So that because, you know, we had people who understood, you know, that type of puppetry, that type of character, and, of course, that type of costume. But it was really the brilliance of Bill Giles, too, because Bill, you know, worked with the Bonnie and they were they collaborated together. And the result was, you know, what we currently had fallen in love with is the fanatic, but, you know, the, the personality was, and I think it was wonderful enlightened leadership, you know, Bill, because I was petrified, going, you know, I didn't look like we had a plan. The costume fit me, it was delivered the first day, I was supposed to wear it with no instruction. And, and Bill was just telling me, well, you're just gonna go out? And I said, Yeah, but what do you want me to do? And he he finally he saw the fear on my face. And he said, David, you just you have to go out and have fun. If you don't do that it's it's not going to work in front of our fans. well that directive that Prime Directive released all my fear and, and when I went running out of his office, he screamed at me and this is the honest to god truth, you scream, g rated fun, David g rated.
Sure, he had put the fun in the box. And I do believe that the 40, 43 years guys that the Phanatic has been, that his success has been driven by that, that original directive. And, and it was taken really seriously. But in my mind that I didn't want to betray trust. And then I just did, what all great Philadelphia fans would do, and go put my emotions on my sleeve, show my insecurity, show my passion for my team. And then of course, mix that with all of the slapstick humor, which was just I thought, beautiful comedy to me. So cartoon characters, and The Three Stooges and, and all and all the, you know, Laurel and Hardy, all of those were, you know, shaped my young life in terms of entertainment. And I just squish that all together. And what the product was this wonderful personality we have is the Phanatic.
Ray Loewe 9:04
So So now the original Philly Phanatic was born. And you were actually not only the original Philly Phanatic, but you were really the forerunner of all of these mascots weren't you?
Dave Raymond 9:18
Well, we have to give a lot of credit to the modern day mascot that was started in San Diego by the San Diego Chicken. And that really was we had a junior executive by the name of Danny Lehman, who was on the west coast. About a year and a half. Right, right. When I started as an intern in 76, who came back after seeing this crazy character in San Diego that was a guy in a chicken suit and went to build jobs and said, Hey, this, this is really something that's that's special that's going on. The people are paying more attention to this chicken than they are to the to the Padres. And at the time, they were an expansion team and they weren't winning and that that of course, was a relatively easy thing to do. distract the fans from the mess that was going on on the field. And then that's when Bill first started to curate this concept of Well, we're on the forefront of doing wild and wacky and crazy promotions here. For the Phillies games, we have to fill up a stadium that has 60,000 seats for baseball, which was relatively unheard of. So we need to do more. And that's that's how the Phanatics was born. And then I think after that, this concept of what sports mascots could do, not only for, you know, for the fans, but for the business, and once it becomes a successful business operation, then, you know, kind of all bets are off on how big it could become. Right, right.
Ray Loewe 10:41
Yeah, I remember you telling me we during our kind of pre conference over here that the Philly Phanatic was actually born in the Galapagos Islands, we
Dave Raymond 10:50
he was and you know, and sick because of what you do with the luckiest folks in the world. And you do some travel. And it's a perfect example of how seriously the Phillies take the Phanatic's backstory that we created to end and they one day, they said, we're gonna send you along with the Phanatic to the Galapagos Islands, so you could kind of witness where the fanatic was born. So I actually got to go to the Galapagos Islands, because we made up this fanciful story, just to have a connection of some kind to how the Phanatic came to Philadelphia and got me to the Galapagos Islands,
Ray Loewe 11:27
and all over the country, and probably more than that, so so you now we're in this furry, fuzzy green costume. And your job was to bring happiness to the world? Then how old were you? You are, you're just getting out of college at that time.
Dave Raymond 11:47
I was 21 years old when I started in 1978.
Ray Loewe 11:51
You know, that's a lot of responsibility for a 20 year old, you know, you bring happiness to the whole world. And yet, and yet you've done this, okay, and, and you're still doing it. So how long ago did your actual career as the Phanatic where you dressed up in a costume, and
Dave Raymond 12:12
I was I was there for 16 years. And after the, in 1993, we went to the World Series somewhat unexpectedly, we had such great characters on that baseball team that the Phanatic sometimes got overshadowed by by the characters that were playing baseball like john Kruc and Darren Dalton and Lenny Dykstra, and Mitch Williams, and I got to be at that point. Over time, I got to be friendly with many of the players, but I had some really close friends on that team. And I mean, Darren Dalton came to my bachelor party, which, which was a great way to get a lot of young ladies interested in coming to that bachelor party. My father in law was there. And that's a whole nother story. But he said, hey, look, how many young ladies are following me into our room. I said, I said to my father in law, Wayne, it's Darren Dalton. That's why he's here. But that was a great group of people, good friends. And then when that ended, you know, I decided, probably at the beginning of that season, that I wanted to figure out what I could do for a living that didn't require me to sweat and toil on this giant fur costume. Because I at some point, physically, I would be incapable of doing what I was getting paid to do. And I would still be quite young, and I needed to figure out a way to, to pay the bills and to bill and that's that when, when my venture into entrepreneurial focus came into play, and it was the best decision I ever made in my life as crazy as that might sound giving up that job.
Ray Loewe 13:42
So cool. So before we leave the fanatic, though, you performed in some crazy places. I think I was looking at some of your YouTube videos and things before, and you've actually done as the Phanatic funerals. Oh, yeah, sure. Services. take a couple minutes and talk about some of this stuff. Okay.
Dave Raymond 14:03
Well, I think the the concept started because it's so funny how this works by rote Ray. And KC, it isn't something that was necessary planned for this type of success. It was let's do something different. Let's have some fun. Well, what happened was immediately people wanted the Phanatic to come to local appearances. So there were car dealerships and fairs and, you know, birthday celebrations and bigger events, that made sense. But while at the same time we were getting requests to go to places where really I would look at the piece of paper that, you know, this contract was placed going, Well, what am I going to do there, you know, General Electric polymer engineers convention, doing events where there were no children. And then and then, of course, very early in the career a request from a family whose patriarch had lived a wonderful long life into his 90s and he was A huge Phillies fan and he had actually expressed that he wanted the Phanatic at his wake he actually had put it in his last wishes get God because I want this to be a party and I was very nervous about doing that. I don't know what I was expecting. But I basically walked into a party they were celebrating a life well lived. And and having the Phanatic there because of the connection to Philadelphia made a ton of sense. So after that, I'm like, this works everywhere I a Catholic mass, who were I met, a very good friend of mine is still a mentor me Father, Jim Dever, who was at at St. Charles, the Borromeo and cinnaminson at the time, and he wanted me to sneak in behind his precession before he gave Mass and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, but I can't do that. And he said, you know, Mike, my homily is about the unexpected circumstances. He said, curveballs that life throws our way. So we had a theme, and we did it. And it worked. And I, I mean, the whole congregation was aghast at first because they thought I was just doing it on my own as a Phanatic. And once they saw that Father, Deborah was happy with it. They recognize it was okay with the Lord. And it works.
But my favorite all time appearance was was getting to know Ethel Kennedy, when they're just after Bobby Bobby's assassination, and they started the RFK Memorial tennis foundation for kids with mental challenges. And so she would go all over the country before the Flushing Meadows event, which was the big signature event of the year, she met me as the Phanatic in Philadelphia. I got to know her personally. She invited me to come to Flushing Meadows. And then after the Phanatic was successful there, I was working with Schwarzenegger and Chevy Chase and Cheryl Tiegs, it was it was just a mind blowing experience. She then said to me, I want you to come to Hickory Hill during one of our family gatherings. And I said, well, Mrs. Kennedy, What, what do you want the fanatic to do there, she said, you know, as Kennedys we get together. And before dinner, there's always some sports contests and somebody's mad at somebody else. And by the time dinner rolls around, nobody's talking, I'm going to bring you in, and you're going to be the official referee for the Kennedy sports contest. There's no way they can take it seriously. And there I was, you know, in Camelot, keeping the Kennedys away from each other's throats. And, and it it was, it was a special time I have this wonderful letter from, from Ethel Kennedy thanking me. You know, it just there's a I mean, these are the types of benefits that I received from being kind. I mean, it's, you know, I'm being kind and I'm getting this enormous amount of benefit from meeting wonderful people and having these great memories. And that was one of my favorite, but the message is that this there is no place that that a dose of this will not work. And that that is the universal quality of fun.
Ray Loewe 17:56
You know, there's one other story I'd like you to get into. And then we're going to go into where are we now and where are we going? But I think you had to go to was in LA as the Phanatic. And you're on the field with a band.
Dave Raymond 18:10
Yes, it was. It was one of those times where, you know, youth collides with common sense. And I was so young when they were asking me to go to Los Angeles very early in the 80s. So just a few years after the Phanatic was born, and the Dodgers had heard that the Phanatic was very successful in pregame they're in baseball, there's a wonderful environment of getting prepared for the game, unlike any other sports. So you, you go get your hot dog, you get your soda, the kids get to walk around the stadium, and then things just start to happen somewhat unannounced on the field that its value added entertainment and bands were part of that. And then my my directive with the Phillies was anything that's going on the field, you have carte blanche, they trusted me to do spontaneous work with whatever's going on. And that always highlighted those guys. It was like a laser pointer for the fans. They go look, there's a Phanatic. And then wherever the fanatic would go, they would watch so it made the band performances better. And I was course was meeting with the band directors saying this is what I'm gonna do. And when I went to LA, number one, I was just excited about going to Los Angeles and working in front of new fans. Instead, when I got out there, they were booing the heck out of me. Like I had 20 minutes, you know, to win them over and over and I'm like, Oh, yeah, right. I'm, I'm the enemy. Of course, you're booing me. But I wasn't ready for that. And then this band filed out to centerfield. I go, Oh, this is how I'm going to distract them because they'll love this. And I ran out and started playing with the band and the band director came on the field and started to grab me and he's trying to drag me off the field. He's screaming get off the field. You're gonna ruin the show. Do you know how hard my students have worked and you're gonna ruin it? Because I hadn't asked for permission. He thought I was some nut that jumped out of the stands. So the funny thing that happened was as he's dragging me off the field, I saw two big Los Angeles police officers running on the field. And I thought, Oh my gosh, they're gonna, they think, you know, they think that this guy's caught an intruder, they're gonna throw me in LA jail, And I was never gonna get out. Instead, the police officers ran right past that for that fanatic and grabbed the band director and tracked him off the field. And I'm like, Yeah, like somebody, and the band gets a standing ovation. And I, you know, I go back into the locker room and I say shed myself of fanatics personality and, and I felt bad for the band director, like, he didn't know what was going on. So I wouldn't had a conversation with him. And he stopped me and said, Do not apologize. I just saw my band get a standing ovation from the Los Angeles crowd. I didn't know you were approved. I didn't know you were a professional. I, you know, and you helped you because of the interaction, you helped the band get a standing ovation. I said, Well, you, you were the you know, I was your straight man.
You took care of the rest. And so what happened was, I understood that if I'm going to go do this, and I'm going to do it in an unexpected way, in unexpected circumstances, I needed to make sure that people knew that I was I was a professional, I knew how to make this work. And I'm going to show the leaders ROI. So in this case, I would have said to him, Hey, how 'bout if your band got a standing ovation from the Los Angeles, Los Angeles Dodgers crowd? Would you like that? And they would say, yeah, how do I do that? Well, here's what we're going to do. And so you know, if fun is going to work everywhere in our world today, just think about where we are in our world today. We better make sure it is a it's a serious endeavor to produce very big and unexpected return. And and that is that's also and I'm glad you brought that up, Ray, Because that's a very important part of, hey, we're gonna have fun everywhere. But guess what, we understand how to roll it out.
Ray Loewe 21:54
Okay, so today, you've graduated, although I'm not sure that it's a graduation, to tell you the truth. I, I think that's that's just an incredible life that you lived there during that time. But now you're on a mission. And your mission is to get everybody to be happy, and to have fun. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing?
Dave Raymond 22:14
Well, it's a wonderful pivot point. And, and I was in the midst of doing this pivot anyway, I have a sports marketing business that is centered around creating and developing characters that will sell messaging by creating very powerful, memorable moments. That is a wonderful marketing tool, if you could ever find a marketing tool that when it interacts with folks, they don't know they're being sold. And they and they're going to take a snapshot of this moment and always talk about it, that that's what my business Raymond Entertainment does. But I've created the power of fun brand, because, you know, this, this wonderful time in this in another personality, and the delivery of kindness. And then the study of positive psychology made me realize that I was living this real time without knowing there is empirical data to support everything that I've been talking about, which is why is the fanatic so powerful? Why after 43 years, he still is doing the same thing? And the answer is because they've engaged the power of fun. And so what I what's happened is I've always spoken to groups, community groups, since my early years with the Phillies. But in the beginning, it was Oh, yeah, this is what it's like to be the Phanatic. And that was interesting. But now it's like, here's how you can learn from that experience, to build long term sustainable happiness in your life. And I and I always joke with people, when they say, Well, you know, who's this talk good for? Well, good, want to be happy for the rest of your life, that you would, you'd be one of the people want to talk to, if you don't want to be happy, I don't want to have anything to do with you. You know, it's, it's obvious that it everybody wants to hear this during any time. So it's timeless. But in today's world, because of what we've all gone through since March of last year, this is a tool that not only will help you overcome this challenge, it will build resilience, and it will help you thrive when life is good. It's the same process. And it was all you know, taught to me by my experience, where I lived an idyllic life Ray and KC until life smacked me upside the head with, you know, with the struggles of my my young mother, 59 years old, who passed away with a brain cancer and at the same time, right at the same time, my marriage collapsed, and everybody knows that they've gone through challenges. That's the way life works. You know, you can get a double blow of brutality, when you're, you know, when you're least expecting it. And for me, if you think about my life up to that point, nothing had gone wrong. And then I get hit with a double shot of the brutality of life. And it was the Phanatics personality that saved me and those are the lessons I've extrapolated, deconstructed And that's what I, I talk in all my keynotes. And I'm, I'm talking to large conferences and events, but I'm also talking to small leadership groups. We do training for people who are just looking to build happiness, and to overcome and it has been the it's, I believe, Ray, that my entire life has put me in this place specifically to do this at this time. And, and that's what I wake up every morning, just, I'm so excited, I get out of breath, just thinking about what I'm going to do next.
Ray Loewe 25:30
Unbelievable. So one quick thing, you have a book out, it's called the power of fun. We're gonna where do people get that?
Dave Raymond 25:39
In every app, you know, I've decided not to give Amazon any more strength than they need. So I put I self published, but I'm very proud of the book and I and it gets wonderful reviews. So I will leave it at that. But Dave, Raymond speaks.com, is where you can get the book you can and for free, you can join our newsletter, which, you know, is been a really labor of love for me once a month to send that out the 5:30 the last Friday of every month, because I for some reason, that's the most popular Friday. I think we're moving to the next month week. Okay, that's behind us. Now, it's Friday at 5:30. So I'm looking forward to the weekend. And this is an easy read, it takes, you know, 15 minutes to read the entire thing unless you dive into the links. And it's just promotes the tips and tricks about how to be happy. And the book does the same thing.
Ray Loewe 26:29
And I can tell you, I've read a couple of issues. And they each have made me smile.
Dave Raymond 26:36
That's that's so wonderful to hear. Thank you.
Ray Loewe 26:38
So we're at the end of our time, David, it's been a wonderful time block here. And we need to get you back sometime and continue these great stories that you've had. But do you have any last parting words that you'd like to leave?
Dave Raymond 26:52
It's very simple Ray, and KC, and I want you to do two things. Stop asking people how they're doing and instead say, Tell me something good. And watch the fun that ensues in after that. And remember that your happiness truly is up to you. You have to decide how happy you want to be and then you have to work at it. Just like any other thing that's worth it in life, you have to work hard at your happiness every day.
Ray Loewe 27:17
So words of wisdom from a fuzzy green thing. Right. And and Dave Raymond, thanks for being our guest on Changing the Rules. And it was a wonderful time slot. So I look forward to listening to it again. So have a great day, everybody and KC, where we go next.
KC Dempster 27:36
And join us next week for another great Changing the Rules Talk.
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules a podcast designed to help you live your life the way you want and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us next week for our next exciting topic on Changing the Rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.